I have an older McNaughton blade that I want to replace the tip on. Is M2 steel good, or should I try something harder? Also, is brazing or silver solder a better idea?
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Replacing tip on McNaughton Center Saver
- Thread starter Wyatt Holm
- Start date
I silver soldered some tantung onto some of my old blades. Stellite would be fine also. I think there is a source for tantung down there. If you don't have the silver solder ribbon, you can just pound some standard solder down flat. The standard solder will not wick all the way under the tantung so you don't get a good seating. M2 would probably work, or M42, or V10. I have used the tantung on some of my hollow form bars too. Kel does make money selling new blades, which is what he wants customers to do. Not sure if he is still making them or not. Oops, for some reason I thought you were Hughie....
robo hippy
robo hippy
So I asked Mike Mahoney a few weeks ago what is going on with McNaughton... he said that they are not making them anymore. However come Christmas, Mike plans to release his own system.
I also recommend silver solder. (Not to be confused by silver colored solder) A mapp gas torch will get hot enough.
The "old" MAPP torches would get hot enough, the newer ones will not. I guess this is a "safety" thing.... You need an acetylene torch. I think the standard solder can be used, but not positive. Some one did pound some down flat and used that. I will have to bug Mike about his coring system. Robust is making one as well.
robo hippy
robo hippy
Woodcut Tools sells replacement Stellite cutters, check your local dealer or the Woodcut website. The cutter is supplied 'pretinned' so you just need to heat the underside of the cutter and assemble level on the knife then sharpen to your profile. Let me know if you need more details
Stellite is comparable to tantung. I think the only difference is that the stellite may take a finer edge. I have never stropped my Big Ugly tool, but I did find that I can burnish a burr on it. Same with stellite. I did have a company up in Canada send me some samples of stellite to make the Big Ugly tools out of, and when I called back to purchase some, they only wanted to sell me "blocks" of the material, and the down side of that was that I would have to process it by myself, and I had no tools for doing that. Not sure how stellite is made. Tantung is cast. Stellite would be an excellent material for making the Big Ugly tools out of!
robo hippy
robo hippy
Woodcut Tools has chosen stellite for bowl coring because it can produce a hollow grind especially if sharpened on CBN. The benefit is the crushed shavings that won't block the cutter. In addition what we learned from the sawmill industry is that Stellite is very hard wearing, resists stones and knots in wood. Most customers will never need to replace their Stellite cutter, in fact Woodcut Tools sells very few replacement Stellite cutters for this reason. Confirming yes the Stellite is cast and when Woodcut Tools supplies replacement Stellite cutters they aren't supplied in a block, can heat up the solder to assemble to the Knife with a simple chef's torch if you wanted.
Can you get me the link to their cutters?
here is the link Wyatt and the cutters are supplied with guidelines to apply. Please nte our pricing is in NZ $ which is where we are located https://www.woodcut-tools.com/arts-...-Bowlsaver-Blade-Replacement-Parts-p491474223
I had an early Kelton set up. The stellite was done by arc welding application. So replacement as such could only be done by refacing the tip via an arc welder
I have had no knowledge of what the cutting material on the old Kelton coring and hollowing tools was. Only thing I knew was it was paper thin, or even thinner. For sharpening, a coarse diamond card worked best. I am not sure if the tantung is more brittle than the stellite or not. That is the only down side to tantung that I know of. You have to have some metal underneath to support it or it can chip, though with my Big Ugly tools, that has never been any type of problem. The Big Ugly is my go to tool for all of my bowl roughing out work. One burr can last half a day.
robo hippy
robo hippy
I would consider re-tipping with tungsten carbide. It certainly outperforms tantung and the better HSS by quite a margin.
Hughie has done and can comment on silver soldering the TC to bars.
I expect that stellite would perform as well as tantung, but haven't done any side-by-side testing to be definite about that.
I have never had a TC tip chip when turning stone filled and knotty wood, but it does have to be sharpened with diamond.
Hughie has done and can comment on silver soldering the TC to bars.
I expect that stellite would perform as well as tantung, but haven't done any side-by-side testing to be definite about that.
I have never had a TC tip chip when turning stone filled and knotty wood, but it does have to be sharpened with diamond.